Qualification as Juror
The qualifications for a jury are that people must be between the ages of 18 and 70, be registered on the electoral register or they have lived in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands or Isle of Man for five years from the age of 13.
Disqualification as Juror
The disqualifications for a jury are if someone has a criminal conviction and if you have ever been sentenced for a criminal offence, in the last 10 years.
If someone is on bail, in holy orders, if you are a minister of any religion or in a vowed member of any religion living in a monastery or any other religious community, then you can again also be excused from having to attend for jury service.
To be excused, you have to prove these things.
Ineligible for Jury Service
Ineligibilities (people who don’t need to be jurors) are people who have mental illnesses, people whose jobs are concerned with the administration of justice or actual Priests, Monks and Nuns.
Excusable as of right, so that you do not qualify to attend, is if someone is a Member of Parliament, if someone is serving in the army, doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
Anyone over the age of 65 is also excused from having to serve on a jury.
People who have been involved on jury service within the last two years, midwifes, veterinary surgeons or a veterinary practitioner are also not allowed to serve on juries.
You are not qualified for jury service if you have ever been a Judge, a Stipendiary Magistrate, a Justice of the Peace (JP), the Chairman or President; the Vice Chairman or Vice President; the Registrar or Assistant Registrar of any tribunal.
You are not qualified if you have ever been at any time within the last 10 years, a prison custody officer, a public notary, a legal executive employed by a solicitors practice, a barrister, a barrister’s clerk or assistant, someone employed in a forensic science laboratory, an authorised advocate, or authorised litigator, a court security officer, a solicitor or articled clerk, a legal executive employed by solicitors, a member of the staff of the Director of Public Prosecutions, an officer employed under the Lord Chancellor and concerned with the day to day administration of the legal system, an officer or member of staff, of any court whose work is concerned with the day to day, a coroner, deputy clerk or assistant, one of the active elder brethren of the corporation of trinity house of Deptford strond, a shorthand writer, a court security officer, a governor, Chaplin, medical officer or other officer of a penal establishment, a member of the board of visitors of a penal establishment, the warden, or a member of the staff , of a probation home, probation hotel, or bail hostel, a probation officer or someone appointed to help them, a member of a parole board, or a local review committee, a member of a any police force (this includes a person on central service, a special constable, or anyone with power and privileges of a constable), a member of a police authority or of any body with responsibility for appointing member of a constabulary, an inspector or assistant inspector of constabulary, a civilian employed for police purposes or a member of the metropolitan civil staffs.
When the right number of jurors have been chosen, the people who have been chosen are sent a jury summon telling them what date to go to the crown court the length a of the jury service is.
It usually lasts two weeks but they are also told that the trial might take longer.
More people have to be summonsed than the 12 because it is not known if someone is ineligible or excusable of the right, if someone is ineligible or excused to the jury service they have to declare it or if they don’t they are fined up to £5,000 it they don’t declare.
Excuses for Not Attending Jury Service
There are other people who just don’t simply want to do the jury service and they have to explain to their reason if they have a good enough reason.
They would be excused from the jury service they might be excused but they might have to do it in the future examples of good reasons for being excused is being too ill to go to court.
If you have a business appointment, if you have a holiday booked or if you have an examination, these excuses are called discretionary excusals.
It is up to the court if you are excused and if you are not excused you have to attend court on the date given by the court, if they do not attend court they are risking getting a fine of up to £1,000 for not attending.
In most of the crown courts there usually several rooms each of the rooms have different cases going on, when a new trial starts the defendant is asked whether he pleads guilty or not guilty, if the defendant plea not guilty the juror who are not if another case will come to the court room, the clerk at the court will read out there names of the jurors if there are more than 12 juror they chose 12 from how ever many there are this is a part of the selection process that is done on public in the court room.
Challenging Jurors
Anyone of the 12 jurors once entered the jury box can be challenged by the defence or prosecution, they can only challenge them if there is a reason if a juror is disqualified or if they know the defendant.
They can challenge the whole of jury if they have not been selected properly selected, this is a rare occurrence. They have the right to put a juror on the stand so they are put to the end of the availability list of jurors, if there isn’t enough jurors they have power to pick someone off the streets to be a juror or someone from an office if they are qualified this is called a tales man. This is unusual to do this but this was used when half of the jurors didn’t show in London in the Middlesex Crown Court in January 1992.
